An Xiaoyi opened his eyes in the dead of night.
He hadn’t slept, waiting for St. Antiona College to fall into slumber.
A red glow on the bedroom wall, the electronic clock displayed the time: 2:32:43.
The seconds ticked by.
He threw off his covers and walked to the window.
Outside, most of the dormitories were still lit up.
Cold wind howled, vibrating the glass pane.
In the hazy moonlight, figures could vaguely be seen moving across the campus square, and some students were even practicing erhu in the middle of the night.
Grabbing a piece of clothing, An Xiaoyi left his room and stood in front of Dorm 30-3.
“Not awake yet?”
An Xiaoyi hesitated for a moment but decided to knock on the door, muttering to himself about his dissatisfaction with He Xiaoxin.
Before he went to sleep, she had finally sent him a message, saying they would go together in the early morning to find clues about An Xiaoyi’s parents.
This was also the reason for his dissatisfaction; she had no information about his mom and dad’s whereabouts.
She said she only knew that the couple had indeed been former directors of St. Antiona College, and all past directors had a special database, locked in the confidential archives, accessible only with the principal’s authorization.
Based on his over a month of understanding He Xiaoxin, this woman hadn’t lied to An Xiaoyi yet.
Just as An Xiaoyi was about to knock, the door of Dorm 30-3 opened, and He Xiaoxin stood behind it, her expression cold.
He lowered his raised hand, seeing the woman in a pure white nightgown, her hair loose.
He Xiaoxin didn’t speak.
She turned and went inside, reappearing moments later fully dressed.
She must have just woken up, barefoot.
This was also the first time An Xiaoyi had seen the woman’s dorm.
The floor was quite messy, but there were many clothes racks, hung with strange clothes.
“She must have a clothes collection” An Xiaoyi thought.
However, some of the clothes seemed too small, not fitting He Xiaoxin’s size: small dresses, Lolita outfits, black gothic wear, gardening shoulder bags… almost fifty pieces of clothing suitable only for girls aged 12 to 16.
An Xiaoyi looked at these clothes and felt a sense of familiarity.
Before he could think more, He Xiaoxin closed the door.
“What are you still looking at?” He Xiaoxin noticed his lingering gaze.
An Xiaoyi withdrew his gaze and followed behind her. “Those clothes of yours, my sister has similar ones.”
“Oh, those are the clothes An Xiaoxue used to wear.”
The woman said this very flatly, almost as if joking.
An Xiaoyi didn’t think any more about it.
The two walked through the corridor and entered the elevator.
As the elevator descended to the first floor, it opened to reveal a group of late-returning executive professors who had just come from the executive bureau.
An Xiaoyi looked up, their gazes met.
Eve, who was leading them, stopped talking to the other professors and scrutinized the two in the elevator, her expression quite confused and puzzled.
To run into them at this time, An Xiaoyi very naturally made a phone call.
Even before the elevator opened, he had already heard the voices outside and had been holding his phone, ready to use it.
“Yes, okay, I’m already down.”
An Xiaoyi hung up the phone and spoke first, “What a coincidence, Professor Eve, you’re all just getting back so late?”
“We just came from the Executive Bureau,” Eve glanced at He Xiaoxin, then at An Xiaoyi.
“So late, are you going to…”
“I left my phone at the restaurant. I’m going to get it now.”
“But isn’t your phone in your hand?”
“It’s a new phone, a gift my family gave me today when they visited,” An Xiaoyi said casually.
“Was that your grandfather?”
“Looks like you met him. His main characteristic is that he looks indescribably peculiar.”
Eve nodded, “Yes, he’s a bit of a peculiar old man.”
Then she looked at He Xiaoxin, “Are you with him?”
“I have nothing to do with her, just happened to be going the same way, I’m leaving first,” An Xiaoyi was the first to step out of the elevator.
He Xiaoxin followed, saying even more casually, “I’m going on a date. This time is perfect for fostering a relationship.”
An Xiaoyi choked a bit.
How could she say that so naturally, with a straight face?
“Someone actually managed to impress Supervisor He,” Eve also nodded, instinctively averting her gaze.
He Xiaoxin was the strangest person at St. Antiona College.
She had no pleasant expressions for anyone.
No one in the college or the Executive Bureau liked to make eye contact with the head of the Information Center, let alone interact with her.
To be precise, He Xiaoxin was merely a nominal professor.
Her position was delicate; the Information Center was similar to an intelligence department, St. Antiona College’s own intelligence department, but the position of supervisor was jointly granted by the Executive Bureau and the Board of Directors.
In the Executive Bureau, she was on the same level as the head of the intelligence department.
Eve pressed the elevator button, watching their retreating figures leave the first-floor lobby.
Standing outside the hotel, An Xiaoyi watched the woman approach and finally couldn’t help but ask the question that had been bothering him, “Why do I always feel like the professors… seem unwilling to have too much contact with you?”
“I don’t know,” the woman was as cold as ever.
An Xiaoyi lowered his head distractedly, always feeling that He Xiaoxin was a rather lonely woman, though perhaps it was just a self-deceptive illusion.
She only showed expressions other than coldness when she was with An Xiaoxue.
The so-called confidential archives were not in the Executive Bureau but in the basement beneath the Academic Affairs Building.
A hidden door could only be opened by simultaneously inputting an authorization card and a password.
The corridor had infrared blockades every three meters, and it was hard to spot the perfectly sealed gaps in the alarm lights on the ceiling with the naked eye.
This was An Xiaoyi’s first time in the basement of the Academic Affairs Building.
He Xiaoxin pressed a hidden button on the wall at the corridor entrance, and a complex black slot popped out.
She used only a small USB drive to shut down the Academic Affairs Building’s security system.
The lights went out.
He Xiaoxin frowned, likely not expecting the USB drive’s authority to extend directly to the power system.
She stood contemplating in the slot, hesitating about something.
“Don’t you know how to use it?” An Xiaoyi noticed she wasn’t very skilled with the authorization.
“This is my second time using this USB drive. I didn’t expect it to cut off the power.”
He Xiaoxin was very frank.
“Hopefully, it only cut off the power to this building, otherwise the Executive Bureau might notice.”
“You’re the head of the Information Center, can’t you just walk in through the front door?”
“Firstly, this place is separate from the Executive Bureau’s confidential archives; only the principal and the Board of Directors can enter. Secondly, why don’t you consider why Farrow hasn’t helped you find clues about your parents?”
He Xiaoxin calmly stated the fact.
The school’s confidential archives contained information on all past directors.
Farrow couldn’t possibly not know.
She knew An Xiaoyi’s purpose but remained unmoved.
In the more than a month An Xiaoyi had been at the school, Farrow had been too good to him, so much so that students, professors, and even the Executive Bureau had witnessed it firsthand, even treating it as a rumor about an illegitimate child.
Since she was so good to An Xiaoyi, why wouldn’t she retrieve the confidential archives for him to see?
An Xiaoyi should understand.
He just looked at the corridor.
“Maybe the content inside isn’t important. After all, I’m looking for their whereabouts, not investigating what kind of people they are. Although I really don’t know what secrets they have, for example, I only now believe that they were truly directors of St. Antiona.”
“In short, don’t trust Farrow too much,” He Xiaoxin pulled out the USB drive and walked through the corridor.